Blue Blood followed Velvet Lace into his personal quarters. The living room was posh and gaudy, covered in expensive furnishings, mainly in royal purple, a color he absolutely despised but chose to keep up appearances. Passing through quickly, they entered his bedroom, decorated in a similar manner, with a large canopy bed in the center, and large expensive cherry wood dresser on one side and a massive writing desk on the other side under the window. They entered a large walk in closet it in the rear of the room, the size of most ponies bedrooms, filled with every expensive and fashionable garment that money could buy. Moving to the back, Velvet Lace took a tie hanging in the back firmly with her mouth and pulled down and the floor began lower, taking them down a massive shaft.
When it stopped, they were well below the Royal castle, in an old dungeon, constructed and abandoned long ago when Princess Celestia was a filly. It had taken him months of searching, and studying old drawings of the Castle to find it, but it served well has his secret base of operations. He had converted the main area into a lab. As they entered, lights turned on automatically as machines and computers sprang to life. In the center of it all was a large, cylinder shaped crystal chamber with dark fog swirling inside of it with a pair of red eyes in the center.
"Wake up A.P.I!" Blue Blood called out.
"Greetings BB," A monotone female voice said, "How are you this evening?"
"I'm doing well, how about you?" He replied cheerfully,
"My systems are functioning nominally." She replied, "thank you for asking."
"Splendid," he replied, "Begin Dark Alicorn start up sequence, voice authorization, Blue Blood."
"Initiating," API replied, dispassionately.
The red eyes in the murky darkness began to glow more intensely as the black smoke began to condense and move, pouring out of the bottom of the chamber onto a small pool on the floor. It was Blue metal, which possessed two states, one liquid the other solid and harder than any substance know to Pony-kind. Its best feature was, it could move easily between both states and also could be, under the right conditions, controlled and formed intelligently. He had invented it his freshmen year of college and it allowed his suit to form fit to him as perfectly as a second layer of skin, with any tools he might preprogram in. The only thing that was forged was the helmet as one, he hadn't worked out how to make blue metal transparent to cover the eyes and secondly, form fitting while precise still had its limits as it would attempt to fill his mouth and nostrils both of which disastrous.
"Did you have to make it so creepy?' Velvet asked.
"That's the point." He replied, with smile, "I couldn't very well scare many bad guys if it were the same color as Cadance."
"All systems operating in acceptable parameters, BB," A.P.I announced, "Ready for fusion sequence.
Blue Blood said moved to step into the circle.
"BB!" Velvet lace called out after him. He turned and looked towards her, as she said, "Make sure you're back before the delegation arrives."
He nodded, "Will do." And then stepping into the circle he said, "Engage A.P.I."
The liquid darkness rapidly moved up his hooves and legs covering every inch of his body, merging with his physical flesh, an odd sensation but painless one. His white coat was transformed black as pitch, his hooves and horn silver, along with his mane and tail. Out of his back sprang long silver wings, looking more metallic than the feathered wings of a pegasi. Once the helmet lowered onto his head, he extended his wings, as rockets erupted from the bottom causing him to rise into the air. Then, his rockets roared as he raced down one the hallways, leading to caves below the palace.
This was all made possible by the Star converter, his greatest achievement. It looked very much like his cuttie mark as he had dreamed of the concept years ago and had realized that his special talent was technology. Because of the magical nature of Equestria, advanced technology was considered difficult if not impossible use, as magic seemed to have disruptive effect on anything beyond a pump or a quill pen. The Star converter, transformed magic into usable energy allowing advanced technology to work in harmony with the magical nature of Equestria. It was a wondrous creation that could revolutionize the world, if he were to share it. However, while he had intended originally to do just that, he realized very quickly that this technology could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands and given the primitive nature of his aunt's court, Equestria simply wasn't ready. There would come a time when he would share his secrets with the world, but that time had not come yet.
As he raced through the twists and turns of the caverns, A.P.I's voice cautioned, "Warning, approaching speed beyond safety limits for current flight path."
"Okay, okay," Blue Blood muttered, slowing down, "Spoil sport."
He twisted and turned up a tunnel and a few seconds later raced into the night sky.
"A.P.I, give me a sweep of the local area, listen for any signs of trouble or things out of the ordinary." Blue Blood said, as he leveled his flight path.
"Initiating," A.P.I replied, "The evening train to Canterlot from the south east desert has made an unscheduled stop."
'Unscheduled stop?" Blue Blood asked surprised, "What's its location?"
"North by North west of Canterlot," A.P.I replied.
"What do you mean North by North West?' Blue Blood asked, "What are the coordinates?"
"8111." A.P.I replied.
"There's nothing out there," He said puzzled, He then asked, "Any idea on the reason for this unscheduled stop?"
"Insufficient data to answer query," A.P.I replied.
"Don't know eh? Well let's go find out." Blue Blood replied, accelerating.
As he approached the train, using his helmet's systems, he zoomed in on the activity below. Diamond dogs in black masks where ransacking the cars.
"Looking like we should intervene," Blue Blood replied cheerfully, turning around to make another pass. Coming down a short distance away from the train, he caught sight of two dogs, bickering over a chest.
"This is my box!" One snarled with its caustic voice.
"No mine!" The other screeched, "You get the next one we find!"
"No, I want this one!" The other mongrel growled.
One felt something tapping him on the shoulder and turning around, he saw the red eyes of Blue Blood helmet looking down at him.
The two dogs looked over confused, "What is this?" one asked.
With a swift kick with his front hooves, one of the dogs went flying back slamming into the side of the train knocked out cold. The other leapt and Blue Blood rolled with the attack tossing the dog over his body slamming it hard onto the ground. While it was still dazed, he rushed over and pinned it with its front hooves, glaring down.
"Don't kill me!" The Dog begged.
"Shut up," Blue Blood hissed, his voice distorted to a dark, gravely tone by his helmet, "Answer my questions nice and quietly and I won't hurt you."
"All right, I answer the metal pony's questions and you let me go." The Dog said, with a nervous laugh.
"That's the idea." Blue Blood replied.
"Then ask!" The Dog pleaded.
"Why are you attacking this train?" Blue Blood asked.
"Alpha get much gems from Scorpan if we stop train, so we stop train." The dog whimpered.
"Why did Scorpan want the train stopped?" Blue Blood replied.
"Not know for sure, didn't ask, only keeps asking the desert ponies about, Flume!" The Dog replied.
"What is Flume?" Blue Blood demanded.
"I not know!" The Dog replied, "I just stop train as told." The Diamond Dog curled into the fetal position covering its face with its paws, "Don't hurt me, metal pony."
"I'm not going to kill you," Blue Blood replied, "When you wake up from your nap, tell the Alpha if his lackeys keep attacking trains, he'll be getting a personal visit from me."
The Diamond Dog looked up at him confused, "What nap?"
Gas puffed out of his right front hoof, putting the diamond dog under. Then he got to his feet, and approached the train, "A.P.I Switch to thermal scanning."
Through out the train, Diamond dogs were ransacking the various cars in a frenzy. In one of the cars, he saw glowing red diamond dog silhouettes, and behind them, sitting were several ponies. Quietly walking up to the car, he jumped through the large window shattering the glass. As he landed on the car floor, the two dogs watching the prisoners spotted him, turning with ugly snarls. He raised his front leg and both yipped loudly as they were pinned to the wall by metal nets crackling with electricity rendering them senseless and unconscious.
Looking down, Blue Blood saw the Royal guard of Saddle Arabia tied up and sitting on the floor. "Need a hoof?" he asked.
The Captain of the guard glanced at him confused as Blue Blood moved behind him, cutting him free.
"A thousand thanks, friend." The Captain of the guard said graciously.
"Free the rest of your troops." Blue Blood instructed, "Once you're ready, retake the train."
"What about the Sultan and the princess?" he asked.
"I'll take care of it." Blue Blood replied, turning to go, "Just handle the rest of the diamond dogs."
"Who are you?" The Captain of the guard asked.
Blue Blood looked back, "I'm the Dark Alicorn."
As Blue Blood walked away, one of the guards asked, "Is he some kind of crazy pony or something?"
"I don't know," The Captain of the guard replied, "But I am glad for his help, whatever the case may be."
When Blue Blood arrived at the Royal car, he halted for a moment peering through the small window in the door.
Inside, he saw a humanoid of some kind, covered in brown fur, with bat like wings and a long dog like snout and scorpion's tale. He held the Sultan of Saddle Arabia, a short, chubby pony with a brown coat, black mane and tail and stubby pointed beard, by the throat.
"I'll ask you one more time," The monster began with his gruff voice, "Where is the Flume you were planning to give Celestia?"
"I told you," The Sultan gasped, "I don't know what you're talking about!"
The Monster glanced over at a beautiful mare, matching the Sultan's color, wearing a green satin dress and Shaw, "If you don't know, maybe I should start asking her." The monster threatened.
Blue Blood opened the door and walked in, "Leave her alone, Creep!"
The Monster turned and raised an eye brow contemptuously, "and you are?"
"The Pony who is about to your kick your butt," Blue Blood replied bravely, "If you're smart, you'll let go of my friend there and tuck tail and run."
The monster laughed hard at that and said," Tough talk from a stallion in a tin suit." He smirked, "Can you back it up?"
"Lay a claw on that mare over there and find out." Blue Blood replied courageously
The monster chuckled, "Okay Tin Suit," the monster cracked its knuckles, "Let's dance."
Blue Blood smiled in his helmet, "I'd thought you'd never ask."
"BB," A.P.I began, as Blue Blood moved back a bit to get some distance, "I must advise you to watch for his tail. I believe there is a high probability it is venomous."
"Can it penetrate my armor?" Blue Blood asked.
"With sufficient force, I predict it has a four out of ten chance of penetrating." A.P.I replied.
"That's not bad odds." Blue Blood replied. Just then, the monster's tail slammed into wall next to his head, the wooden panel sizzling as acid leaked from the hole, "Then again…" Blue Blood commented.
The monster attempted to grab him, Blue Blood dodged and rolled coming up behind him. He ducked, narrowly avoided its tail as it slammed into the floor, and spinning, he bucked hard slamming both of his back hooves into the monster's jaw, sending it tumbling back.
With a roar of rage, the monster was back on its feet, swiping with its clawed hand catching Blue Blood on the side of his head, sending him staggering back with a loud metallic clang. When the creature moved to strike with the other claw, a blast of electricity surged out Blue Blood's helmet's horn knocking the monster back against the wall of the rail car hard. It growled angry, its eyes turning red for a moment and with a deafening roar it lunged at the prince. As he came rushing, Blue Blood lowered himself, and using the creature's speed and , tossed the monster over his back.
Winded, the creature slowly stood up but before he could make a move, he heard the sound of shouting followed by the victorious cries of the Royal Guard of the Sultan of Saddle Arabia. Glaring, the monster said, "Another day, tin suit." And with that, the monster extended his wings, bursting through the rail car ceiling like a cannon ball, soaring into the night sky above.
Turning to the two ponies, Blue Blood asked, "Are you all right, you're majesties?"
"Yes, thank you," The Sultan said graciously. "Whoever you are, I shall reward you with your weight in gold for this!"
"That's not necessary," Blue Blood replied graciously, "I shall notify the Royal Canterlot guard, they should arrive shortly to assist you."
Blue Blood extended his wings and took off into the night sky, Princess Desert Flower watched him go with a starry eyed expression and said, "I hope I shall see that one again."
Meanwhile, back in the Canterlot Palace, Velvet Lace was pacing nervously about Blue Blood personal quarter's glancing frantically at the clock. Finally, she groaned and said, "Where is he? They'll be in here in ten minutes and he's not even dressed yet!" There was a determined knock on the door and swallowing hard, the aquamarine mare walked over to the door. When she opened it, Celestia was standing there with a displeased expression. Curtsying with a forced smile of levity Velvet Lace greeted her cheerfully, "You're majesty," She said politely," what can I do for you?"
Celestia narrowed her eyes sending a chill down the pony maid's spine, "I just wanted to see if my Nephew was getting ready, I'd hate for him to be late."
Velvet Lace giggled nervously and said, "He is, your majesty, but he's right in the middle of a complicated and delicate mud mask, I'm afraid he can't be disturbed."
"Really?" Celestia asked skeptically, "It's so complex and fragile I can't even come in?"
Before Velvet Lace could reply, Blue Blood emerged from his room, dressed in a tuxedo and red tie, "Auntie, what I surprise, sorry I wasn't here to greet you at the door but I was just wrapping up a mud mask, dear Velvet her set up for me."
"Well I must say, seeing you dressed and ready to fulfill your duties is a pleasant surprise." Celestia commented, "It's also nice to see your maid was actually telling me the truth, for once."
Velvet Lace's face flashed offense as her jaw dropped silently.
"I just wanted to make sure I was punctual tonight," Blue Blood replied.
"Well, you needn't have rushed, it turns out the train was delayed so they won't be here for another hour or so." Celestia explained, "Still, this is a nice change of pace, Nephew. I hope it keeps up."
When she left Velvet Lace said, "Did you find anything?"
"Actually I did," he replied, "It turns out someone or something named Scorpan is paying the diamond dogs to stop trains."
"Why?" She asked.
"I don't know, they were looking for something called Flume, what that is, I have no idea." He replied.
"Wow," Velvet Lace replied, "Sounds like you had a busy night."
"And that's just part of it." Blue Blood replied ominously, "There was also this monster on the train, with fur all over its humanoid body, with bat wings and a scorpion's tail." Velvet made a faint squeal of fear, and Blue Blood said, "Nothing I couldn't handle."
"I'm just glad you made it back okay," Velvet replied, "And in one piece."
"So am I," he replied with a smile.
"Anyway, now that your life as a hero is over for the night," She looked him over, "Now we can move on to your life as a useless F.O.P" She shook her head and said in a scolding tone, "Why is it you can build all sorts of technical marvels but can't tie a tie properly?"
He smiled and said warmly, "Velvet, what would I do without you?"
Continuing to tie his tie, without missing a beat, she said, "You'd die."
Blue Blood eyes widened with a shocked expression and then he threw back his head in hearty laughter.
End Episode 1
